Yakisoba, Miso Soup, and Babysitting

今日の日本語の言葉: oishii (美味しい) - delicious

This word (which I'm pretty sure hasn't been used yet, but I could be wrong) was brought to you by today's meals, which were absolutely divine.

I woke up today bright at early and got right to writing. I've been writing about an average of three to four thousand words a day for this new fic, which I think is a good rate. The story just keeps coming out, and I always want to write it down wherever I go, since I keep getting ideas, you know? Coincidentally, it is NaNoWriMo as well, so I guess I'm celebrating it in my own way, without having realized it. I will actually participate in NaNoWriMo some day, I swear. Like, for real. Although fifty thousand words isn't actually that much, especially if I'm going at three to four thousand a day. I might actually be able to make it by the end of the month, at this rate, if I throw an occasional five thousand in there, or just stick to the higher range between three thousand and four thousand. We'll see.

I had to leave for school much earlier than usual today, though, because of another workshop, so I didn't get a chance to talk to Anna like usual. But it was for a very delicious workshop, so I think the exception was worth it. We made yakisoba and miso soup today! I didn't really eat much of a breakfast either, so I was really hungry when I got there. 

As a side note, I have to say my school is pretty awesome. What other school do you know that has free workshops on making roll cakes, or building Dutch style chairs, or making yakisoba. They even have—something which I appreciate every day—heated toilet seats. You don't know how good that is until you actually use one, and it's freaking cold everywhere else in the building. My school is awesome.

Making yakisoba and miso soup was great fun! And it was very delicious too. We got to do everything from the peeling to the adding ingredients, and the cooking. We really were making it, and we were doing a pretty good job of it too. Thus, we were the first table to finish, and the first table to get to taste the sweet rewards of hard work. I will definitely be making yakisoba a lot from now on, and miso soup too. And roll cake, if anyone wants to eat it (since I don't do cake). See? I'm learning valuable things at this language school, such as how to survive if everything but Japanese super markets disappear off the face of the Earth.

Yakisoba ingredients all ready to go~ 

My own hard working contribution.  

Doesn't that just look so delicious?! 

When it was finally time to eat, I was so happy. I was so hungry, and the food looked so good. It was my first time eating yakisoba with mayo, though, I have to say. It sounded really weird, but it actually tasted really delicious! It's a similar sauce to okonomiyaki, which is often eaten with mayo, which is probably why it works. The miso soup was one of the better ones I've had, actually. It had the perfect amount of dashi and miso to make the broth taste very sumptuous. And of course, a cup of tea to wash it all down was a perfect way to have lunch.

What was left after we came through with our hungry stomachs. xD 

Class with Shimazaki-sensei was a blast, as always. She is so sarcastic sometimes, and she always goes along with whatever students say, even if they make a mistake. She genuinely cares about her students, and when she asks us questions like "What are you doing next weekend?" in order to have us practice new grammar we learned, she is sincerely interested in what we're doing. Often, we can have pretty long conversations about plans and stuff, and she tells us quite a bit about her life as well.

One of my favorite Shimazaki-sensei moments from today came from her talking to Saya, actually. We were speculating about what language in which Saya and her new boyfriend text, and it turned out to be half English half Japanese. And so, of course, being Shimazaki-sensei, she takes on the demeanor of Saya and starts fake texting, reading her "texts" out loud, most of which went along the lines of "Hello, are you genki? I wa okay desu. Anata too?" It's so much funnier if you could actually see her face with the whole thing and hear her voice.

We were talking about reasons why an apartment might be cheap,
and I mentioned ghosts, so she drew a hilarious looking monster on the board.
She always makes fun of me when I speak English xD

After class, I rushed home very fast. Masahiro-san was working late, and Yoshiko-san had to go to choir practice, so I had to make dinner and take care of the children until either parent returned. I was excited, of course, since that means that they trust me enough to take that responsibility, you know?

More green tea stuff... This one didn't taste good... 

Royal milk tea ice cream? Woah. o.o

We ate delicious curry for dinner (which I heated up; I did not cook this). Ayuka and Ryosuke took a nice bath as I was preparing stuff, and when they got out, I dried Ayuka's hair, which has sort of turned into a nice ritual thing. It also saves Yoshiko-san time if I do it instead. And once, when Yoshiko-san was doing it, I heard Ayuka complain that she wasn't doing it the way I did it, which made me feel so nice. I have a place in Ayuka's heart, if only for the way I dry her hair.

We also ate the last of my roll cake for desert, which Ryosuke really likes, so yokatta, ne? Thank god. I wouldn't have been able to eat that by myself, and Masahiro-san doesn't really like sweet things. Yoshiko-san is trying to diet, so the responsibility of eating it sort of fell to the children, who attacked it with great enthusiasm.

After dinner, I read aloud Cinderella to Ayuka, who kept pointing out the mice on every page that she could find them. That reminds me so much of me and Young Mouse from Good Night Moon, since I never read the book, but instead, I would flip the pages constantly in search of Young Mouse. Such was my childhood.

I helped Ryosuke with English and math homework, and then settled down to do some drawing. I really felt like writing, but I knew that if I wrote anymore, I wouldn't have the writing capacity to do my blog tonight. Thus, my creative juices went to sketching instead.

I put the children to bed, too, since they're terrified of the dark. Ayuka and Ryosuke started fighting over who would sleep where, which ended up with Ayuka crying. And, to my surprise, she ran to me instead of to Yoshiko-san (who, albeit, was downstairs, but she's run downstairs for her before, rather than come to me; I'm getting somewhere). We read more books together to calm her down, and I made her laugh with my ridiculous slow pace at reading Japanese. xD

Eventually, they went to bed and I went downstairs to keep Yoshiko-san company as she ate. Masahiro-san came home with gifts for the family from Kyoto. He brought snacks made of soba, such as this sweet crunchy thing, and some mochi-like cakes, made from soba flour. I actually haven't had any, since I was full, but I'll have some tomorrow and see how it is.

When I mentioned sketching above, more specifically, I was actually sitting around drawing Roppongi and Ginza again, who are definitely my favorites. This time, I did some fast drawings of their serious businessmen faces, which basically means no smile, deadly serious eyes, and extra groomed hair. Ginza is serious half the time, so his serious face actually isn't that severe, but everyone always cowers when Roppongi shows his utterly serious expression. Roppongi is almost always smiling, in relaxed mode and in business mode, which means that his serious face is seldom seen. Thus, when it is seen, it's such a stark difference that people often have a double take, and then they stop what they're doing to listen. He's got such a no-nonsense no tolerance serious face that first of all, people are surprised he's even capable of such sternness, and second of all, if he is being that stern, then it either has to be something big or something grave—or both. Either way, it's most likely to be bad news. Or someone is in serious trouble.

With that little tidbit of my imagination, I leave you to go to bed. It's midnight, and I'm tired and all worn out from writing. Thanks for reading, as always!

また明日、

マギー

P.S. You want to know something cool? I wrote my first completely in Japanese email yesterday. It was hard, and it looks more impressive than it actually is, but here's the content: 

こんにちは、おかもとさま、

お元気ですか。

この天気はまだあまり寒くありません。今日ボストンは 0°C ですよ。

Suicaカードの満了の日は１２月１１日です。ちょっと遅れて買いましたから。

横浜市！楽しみにしています。

今から、日本語でメールを書いてください！読むことはよくになりたい。以上よろしくお願いします。

敬具、

マギー

As I said, it totally looks more badass and well-learned than it is, isn't it? All I'm talking about is the weather, the expiration date of my Suica commuter pass, how I'm looking forward to the trip to Yokohama, and how I want to improve my Japanese, and thus, I'm writing in Japanese (even though she wrote to me in English). But I'm getting there! And I'm learning. =]